21 Jun Link Road Puts Strategic Site On Hold

Yorkshire developers Sterling Capitol instructed us to assist them with a problem that resonated from a Development agreement that was going wrong.

The Development Agency always saw land around Goole as a Strategic site but clearly trucks meandering through the town Centre wasn’t the best way to be strategic.

Locals hated the traffic congestion and so a development agreement which offered large B8 opportunities as well as a new link road to take traffic away from the town centre was drawn up.

Initial early success in terms of a new distribution warehouse for Tesco put the link road to one side but soon politicians and locals were angry at the speed of progress. The next phase had been mired in argument and the agenda now included environmental and heritage issues which threatened to blight the agreement.

The Local council announced they didn’t want to approve anything further until their promise of a new road was delivered.

The Development Agency tried to assist by applying for a grant on behalf of the site, which was actually turned down

Sterling wanted to move forward with the next phase of planning, which would have brought forward 1million sqft of development.

The situation became precarious when the Financiers of the business confirmed that they would not entertain additional expenditure on a road or any asset that didn’t produce direct revenue streams.

The banks said the matter was an internal matter between directors.

The site was effectively grinding to a complete halt. The Developers were blocked from financing the new road, the Local Council would not approve any further development, there was a huge fight over the rights and wrongs of the Phase 2 development involving local interest groups, Politician and MPs – It was not a unique scenario for us but it was very difficult. The company was also quite rightly, worried about valuations and ultimately the impact on LTV and re-financing.

To find out how we resolved matters, secured a £8.4m investment built the link road and generated value from this situation message Gary Cartmell Director of Engagement and Outreach